Ask HN: What things would you put a gps on for $5? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What things would you put a gps on for $5?

6 pointsdynofuz19 comments

I don't know if you can hit that price point, but looking at trade pubs I see there is little on the market for the equestrian market.

I think there are several uncanny valleys that make the market hard to serve:

* many horse paddocks are only a modest multiple of the gps uncertainty for typical hardware * you can't count on cell service in rural areas * no unlicensed wireless technology has a range that is (consistently) a large multiple of the gps uncertainty, so if your horse is ranging in a large area you can't get the signal back * anything you interact with while riding is a no-no because misattention will have you on your ass in no time

Actually a large part of the equestrian market could still use a form of this. I am in Florida where places like Ocala and Central/South Florida as a whole have a large number of equestrian activities. I could see a product that was GPS enabled and sent a signal every few minutes via a cell network when in range -- for large open pasture a cell repeater could help increase coverage. And when out of cell range it sends a lower frequency signal broadcasting the coordinates, e.g. 400Mhz or lower. This would let you have a tracking device to find lost animals much faster. And if they get to a place where GPS is no longer connecting, that's fine, the last known position plus signal strength could still get you to the animal much faster.

The hard part is making it affordable, in a small enough form factor of low weight but with reasonable battery life to matter. And then how to attach it to the animal, using the halter is one idea, but most people don't like leaving a halter on a horse in a pasture for safety reasons. So then how to mount it without interfering with the animals movement or having it get ripped off when the roll or scratch on a tree etc. When you are riding there are ways to do it via the saddle, reins etc, but when they are out grazing it is a tougher problem.

I guess another point though, some riders where safety vests, many wear helmets, so a device for a rider could also be created along the same lines. This would be nice for those trail rides when the horse gets spooked, drops its rider and the rider isn't well enough to walk out. Happens more then people realize.

Do you mean a GPS tracker that can tell me where something is? Or do you just mean a GPS receiver that can tell me where I am? There's a huge difference.

tracker, you put it on something, and that something sends you its location (any where in the world) via the internet.

So it connects to the internet via... cellular networks? Is that possible for $5 (and only $5) without a service fee and/or the costs of integrating with multiple carriers?

an annual cost of $5/tracker.

Probably depends on whether it is a $5 one off cost and/or a recurring cost to keep the service going.

For $5 one off cost per item and say $15 for the monthly service I'd stick them to pretty much everything.

NB Also depends on size and battery life of tracker and accuracy (e.g. finding a Kindle in a house requires a small tracker and reasonably good accuracy).

Finding things in your home is probably better done via BT / NFC / RFID though, GPS reception is not going to be good indoors, and typical accuracy isn't good enough to tell you to look behind the chair.

Cars, bikes, pets, anything that gets stolen or runs away. The existing cheap tags are just beacons with short range. The apps overpromise using a network (other people with apps) to continuously look for reported tags. In not densely populated areas that's useless.

And without a single tag specification being widespread, it's barely useful since the market is fragmented.

Wallet, keys, car, bike, skateboard, roller-blades etc.

This depends on how long does the battery last, and how easily the GPS information is retrievable (APIs, etc)

Also is this based on something like LoRa or SigFox ?

I just came off a project in St. Eustatius, where I met a team of marine biologists tracking sea turtles with some form of GPS device. They seemed to be spending a lot on the devices, which were modified for underwater conditions and algae growth and other problems. Still, $5/device is sounds like a price point that would attract many people in the scientific community.

Size matters a lot here. For $5, I'd put a tiny tracker on all my expensive belongings. If the tracker is bigger than, say, a US quarter, then the number of things I could put it on would be much smaller.

Depends how accurate you can get it. I work in a large manufacturing plant and am always losing clipboard/notepad and usually resort to walking around the whole plant to find it.

kids or some kind of belt or backpack watch

Sure, I have a list:

- Laptop

- Car

- Kids (at least until they are teenagers.)

- Wallet

- Keys

- Phone

Somewhat pricey bicycles.

Drug dealers

My cats

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